Raymond Pignone reports in Columbia-Greene Media that the Catskill Village Zoning Board of Appeals on May 17 denied an application for a variance to convert the former St. Patrick’s Academy building into 43 rental units. The state, and the Hudson Valley, are in the midst of an affordable housing crisis, and Greene County says it has too few hotel rooms right now for homeless people or migrants. The now-empty school is in an area zoned for just single-family homes, and the board would not allow the former school to change a variance to create apartments there. The Zoning Board of Appeals released a statement that said that if they granted the variance, it would remain with the property, so another, future owner could take also use the variance and create apartments. The school has been closed since 1988, and if it not economically capable of being a school, and cannot be broken up into apartments, the question is what use the the school building, the two-floor gymnasium, and a large playing field with a view of the Hudson River could be for Catskill. The Village Board would have vote to rezone the property if it wanted to allow another use of the building. Read more about this story at HudsonValley360.com.